It is rather difficult to wish you a happy New Year, since this year did not begin happily.

The attack in Paris, the virtual obliteration of the editorial team of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the murders of 17 people terrorised and intimidated an entire profession, a central element of our Western democracies: the media, the free press or, in a nutshell, freedom of speech. And the key question is, will the terrorists be successful? Will this attack have a long-term impact on journalists and cause them to change their behaviour, or not?

If it does have this effect, 7th January 2015 will go down in history as the day the Western world was browbeaten by Islamist terror. The beginning of the end of real freedom of speech. The start of a new sort of appeasement and the intellectual surrender of democracy, the state founded on the rule of law and human rights. If the attack does not have this menacing effect it could, on the contrary, go down in history as the day that strengthened our values. Both scenarios are possible.

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There are signs that both could play out. Millions of people around the world are currently taking to the streets as a sign of solidarity with the victims and to demonstrate that free societies are still self-assured. Islamic organisations have, more explicitly than ever, dissociated themselves from the attack.

But at the same time the first media companies, television broadcasters and newspapers around the world have started to make compromises, avoided showing the caricatures in their coverage of the attack, or generally adopted a somewhat milder tone, because they are afraid of the consequences of not doing so.

People are frightened. The era in which the media could show courage without having to pay for it is over. Now, courage has a price. In the worst case, it can cost lives. We are at an historic crossroads.

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Given all that has happened, can we really talk about happiness?

I think we can – now, more than ever – and that is what I want to do.

I have to say that at the moment the most hedonistic, carefree instance of happiness that comes to mind for me – and the sharpest possible contrast to the terror attack – is the Axel Springer Christmas party. It was quite an extravagant affair: the first celebration held for all of the company’s employees who work in Berlin and Hamburg.

There were almost 5,000 guests. We had bands such as Chic, and DJs from Berlin and Detroit playing. If the last guests had not been shown the door at 6:30 am, 12 hours after the party had started, it probably would have gone on much longer. One thing is certain: everyone enjoyed themselves. They were celebrating a new mood at Axel Springer. And it was – to put it bluntly – an absolutely fantastic bash.

“Just be happy!”

At one point, after I had had my fourth beer and my second bratwurst, and while the disco legends Chic performed Good Times as an encore, I was suddenly struck by an all-encompassing realisation: we are doing pretty darn well. And I thought of my mother, who once said to me at the age of seven, when I would not stop complaining, “Just be happy!” She then gave me a slap, as if that would reinforce her attempt to cheer me up.

In a way, I would like to follow my mother’s example and give everyone here a slap – or let us call it an affectionate clip round the ear, intended to wake us up.

YES! We are doing well and we should be happy now – right now. And we should think about what we could and should do, specifically, to preserve and defend this happiness. Because it is far from self-evident.

My appeal for happiness is directed at all of us in this room, all of us in Europe, all of us in the West – a part of the world that is spoilt by affluence, well-versed in democracy, content with its states governed by the rule of law and kept sweet by human rights. And until a few days ago, a part of the world where people were content to be living in peace and confident that they were safe.

The West is an idea and a promise of happiness. The idea is called freedom and it is based on democracy, a state founded on the rule of law and human rights. And the promise of happiness means the happiness of every individual in his or her own way, or as the Constitution of the United States puts it, “the pursuit of happiness”. Thomas Jefferson said that providing for people’s lives and happiness without destroying them was the first and only legitimate aim of a good government.

And how happy are the Germans? They are OK. According to the World Happiness Report, Germany is in 26th place on the list of countries, which goes from happiest to unhappiest. Incidentally, the five happiest countries are Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden – all liberal, rich states with democratic structures.

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The unhappier countries include Russia and China, while the unhappiest of all are several African states including Togo, Benin, Rwanda and Tanzania.

One can draw two conclusions from this: firstly, happiness and freedom are linked. Pericles already knew this and came up with my favourite saying: “The secret of happiness is freedom. And the secret of freedom is courage.”

Secondly, we Germans – as usual – are always grumbling.

While we argue about the advantages and disadvantages of statutory quotas for female employees in listed joint-stock corporations, 91 per cent of women in Egypt must live with the consequences of forced genital mutilation. And hardly any of us seem to care.

While we are on high alert, with newspapers publishing special reports and television broadcasters making special programmes all because 17,000 people in Dresden calling themselves “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West” are protesting (and a few weeks later more than twice that number march in favour of open-mindedness and tolerance), millions of people in Crimea are having to live with the forced annexation of parts of Ukrainian territory, which contravenes international law – and the Social Democrat politician Matthias Platzeck believes that this military occupation should be “retroactively settled in line with international law so that it is acceptable to everyone.”

„While Germany ponders retirement from the age of 63...“

While Germany ponders retirement from the age of 63, gay people in some Arab countries are tortured and executed because homosexuality is punishable by death.

While we were argue about toll charges, the hacker team Guardians of Peace force their way into Sony’s servers and steal data, contracts, payslips and private correspondence. And the result of the blackmail by North Korea is that major cinema chains decide not to screen the film The Interview as a safety precaution.

While Germany debates the minimum wage, 132 children are murdered by the Taliban in Peshawar, the terrorist organisation Boko Haram kills anyone in Nigeria who opposes the establishment of a caliphate – probably 2,000 people in the past few weeks alone – and for months Isis orchestrates televised executions in which Western journalists have their throats cut like ritually slaughtered sheep, for maximum media impact.

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While Germany was shaken to its core because the politician Rainer Brüderle allegedly looked too closely at a journalist’s cleavage, last year in China – the country with the most death sentences in the world – thousands of people were executed, according to Amnesty International, just because they had different opinions to the government.

On a related note, why is it not considered a scandal that one of the most popular Germans – the publisher of Die Zeit and former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, whom I also hold in high esteem – still defends the Tiananmen Square massacre today? (In his opinion, the Chinese soldiers on Tiananmen Square were just fighting back: “At first they stood firm, but then they were attacked with stones and Molotov cocktails and they defended themselves – with the weapons that they had.”)

„Why is nobody bothered by it?“

And why does nobody take umbrage with the fact that Schmidt generally believes that Western politicians “should refrain from [...] lecturing the Beijing leadership about human rights” and that “human rights are just a product of our cultural environment and are not present in the Bible, in Islam or in the Far East”?

He can say what he wants. But why is nobody bothered by it?

In Germany those who sympathise with Russia, relativise Islamism and glorify China are currently gaining ground and discrediting the state founded on the rule of law and human rights. Increasingly, they are doing this openly and unchallenged.

What DO we actually get upset about? What priorities do we have, particularly those of us who are journalists and work at Axel Springer?

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And now our smug sense of contentment has suddenly given way to shock at the attack on Charlie Hebdo. But why the surprise? Why did we seriously believe that Europe would remain unaffected by these anti-democratic threats, that it was only an issue for the Americans or the Israelis? If one looks at it more closely, Paris was not a surprise, but probably just the beginning of an escalation in a cultural conflict and religious war that has been going on for a long time.

„We need to show resoluteness as well as composure“

Will we give up before we have even tried or are we prepared to use the means we have – i.e. all our constitutional, democratic means – to fight? Composure, open-mindedness and tolerance must always play a part in the battle waged by the West, but so must the conviction that we are standing up for something that is worth defending. Anyone who now responds to these challenges by radicalising our society or by spreading xenophobia and conspiracy theories is riding roughshod over the values we stand for. But we need to show resoluteness as well as composure.

The historian Heinrich August Winkler summed it up like this: “If the West gave up on the idea of the universality of human rights, it would be giving up on itself.” But that means showing commitment and courage, and not just on our own doorstep. At these New Year receptions I have often spoken about the situation in the Middle East and stressed that Israel’s situation affects us all and Israel’s security is in our own interest – vitally so. Many people thought I was a fantasist. Now we have had to acknowledge that the Paris terrorists were pursuing the same agenda as those who blow up buses in Jerusalem or night clubs in Tel Aviv. Islamist fanatics are not just anti-Semites, but also enemies of free societies and they are bringing about the abolition of our values and our way of life.

In Israel this has been a harsh reality for years. Anyone who has ever sat at a pavement café in Tel Aviv will be familiar with the nervous glances, the gnawing fear when a lorry is parked outside. Could it hold a bomb that is about to go off? Since 7th January this fear has been present in Europe as well. Could that visitor with the big rucksack down at the entrance be a terrorist planning to blow up this reception? We should not let ourselves be ruled by this fear and we should not allow it to change the way we live. Because that is exactly what the fanatics want.

Instead, remember this: with happiness comes responsibility. It is not only property that entails responsibility – happiness does too, to an even greater extent. Our happiness entails certain obligations.

There is no question about it: we are now experiencing the end of the pleasure-obsessed society. Our lives will be characterised by a new seriousness. Because courage has a price again. And that is not necessarily a bad thing.

It could lead to better journalism, better politics and better art. What is more, it could even make us happier – as we fight earnestly for what is right and are deliberately mindful of our privileges.

„Never allow ourselves to be intimidated“

My wish for 2015 is that our happiness in freedom obliges us to do one thing above all: to never allow ourselves to be intimidated.

Each of us can contribute. Everyone has a part to play. So I would like to ask you to savour your New Year champagne – maybe even have one glass too many – and enjoy the salmon, just as I took pleasure in the beer and sausages at our Christmas party and the spaghetti with truffles at New Year. But let us allow moments like these to spur us on to fight against those who find pleasure ungodly and enjoyment decadent.

And a final request: laugh! You owe it to the murdered employees of Charlie Hebdo. Dictators and fanatics do not have a sense of humour. It is no coincidence that it is always CARTOONS und COMEDIES that provoke the resentment of dictators and those who oppose democracy.

Back in the Early Middle Ages laughing was banned in the Christian world. Laughter is anti-authoritarian. Laughter is freedom. Free people laugh – and are happy. And do not forget: everyone is entitled to be happy – not just those who happen to have been lucky.